Karaoke Forums

So we finally got another show in my next of the woods. Several people have tried to start karaoke here and all have failed miserably.

So I thought I would check it out. The host was very personable and seemed like a nice enough person, but right off the bat he told me he was getting new songs, because this guy just gave him a 1TB drive full of music. Then when I asked him about it, and told him what was going on with Soundchoice he actually admitted that he didn't have discs for all his songs and would prolly have to quit if Soundchoice ever came to Canada.


So i decided to stay anyway because i was super bored and didn't really have anything else to do. I flipped thru the book and wrote down several songs.

I was wondering what program he was using because it obviously didn't have a search feature, because he had to browse thru all his selections by title and select them that way. But there was a cool feature that replaced the background video with some splash screens and/or animations. I couldn't see what he was using because he understandably wouldn't let me anywhere near his computer.

So we get about half way, and he breaks up the karaoke to do some Trivia, and Bar games. Ok, this is different but it is interesting.

When he got back to the karaoke, he completely skipped over me. So I went up to the host to talk to him, he apologized and then he did it AGAIN.

I wouldn't have been AS upset but on top of all this, the host would have 3 or 4 minutes of dead air while he was looking for a song. Sometimes he would be trying to cue a song, and then he would get distracted by another person handing in a slip and he would get into a conversation and forget about the person waiting to sing their song.

Other times, he would get into a 4 minute diatribe about some of the most random things and trivia, and forget to cue the song unless someone actually reminded him


Despite all this, he seems to be slowly building the show to a point where it will probably be a permanant gig for him.


Now I never claimed that I would win any hosting Competition but when I was doing a show, I used decent software, and I ran a good show, and yet I couldn't get anyone to come out to support me if my life depended on it.

I just don't understand it.

Ok rant mode off... thanks for letting me vent

-James

The clubs themselves have alot to do with whether people stay and become regulars as well as the hosts. You can have the best kj in a (@$%&#!) hole club and no one will come, you can have a great club (or they offer something that is worth coming in for (low prices, great pours, good food, etc) with a bad kj and can actually make it work.

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Sounds like he was using Karafun. It doesn't have a search feature. He would be better off searching the file out using Explorer from the folder and double clicking it to run in the program. It's a shame, it IS a good program, but has no search function. And before anyone says that you can not use it in public, go read the TOS. You CAN use it in public as long as you provide the music. You CAN'T use Karafun's purchasable music in public.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Absolutely right. Whether a karaoke show succeeds or not depends on many other factors other than the KJ. What the bar offers is ALMOST just as important than the KJ's ability to "play host".

Customers judge a KJ primarily (YES - THE #1 FACTOR) by the number of songs available. All the technical stuff and the interaction stuff and what not - that's often times not even considered by a good portion of singers. So, if you have a KJ that "has it goin' on with the number of songs" in addition to a venue doing what they're supposed to be doing, I'd guess that the show is most likely going to succeed.

EDIT: The number of songs itself does not mean that a show will succeed. It is very possible to have 1,500 songs, a good venue and a mediocre host. It's a combination of all factors. My point was that is a KJ has 40k songs and a good venue, the show has a very good chance at succeeding.

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

It's everywhere. I run a weekly gig, have great equipment, plenty of music (so I think) and interact with the customers as often as I can. I hear ALOT (last night for instance) that my sound is of the highest quality etc. but so and so has tons more music! OR you do not have what we sing down the street...I fight pirates with 65,000 +++ songs all the time doing it for $100.00 for a 4 hour show.

I was told last night that a very popular place about 20 min from us has close to 200,000 songs, yes...not a typo. It's not easy hosting, dealing with people and pirates. Good luck on your ventures !

Traveling from one end of the US to the other and one end of Canada to the other we have LOTS more "pirates" running shows than "certified" ones. As a matter of fact I can not recall one certified show in the last 7 yrs traveling all over. And those that I did talk to about the industry most knew about being illegal and they do not care one bit.

I have talked to a couple of KJs in this area about the whole piracy issue and told them that SC is suing people for it, and they just didn't care, or thought I was paranoid. SC is kidding themselves if they think they will EVER stop piracy the way they are going about it.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Which is exactly the mentality that is killing the industry as a whole! They don't care!

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And there are a lot more that don't care than do.....

And they don't care about any "industry" either... to them it's just "quick money."

SC will have lifetime of lawsuits if they like.


But getting back to the main subject:

1. The size of the library doesn't really matter

2. The content of the library isn't that important either.

3. The cost to the club outweighs #1 & 2.

4. As long as no one is complaining to the club, #3 will rule.

5. A personable - yet perhaps mediocre - host can build and keep a show.

Most people that do this, now, are just trying to make a living. The job market is quite unfriendly, now, and has been for three years.

Even my friend, he was looking to get out of it before the collapse. He was thinking about selling me his system, because I had wanted to get into Karaoke back THEN. Then he lost his day job, and hasn't found another one that pays as well. I know he's tired of doing it, and having his weekends taken up by his gigs, but he can't afford to give up the Karaoke.

People aren't worried about what is going on in the wide world of Karaoke. They are worried about putting food on the table, and if they can get a bit of luck, and get a show going then they can put that food on the table.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

I feel your pain. I am an ODB KJ, and I have (what I feel is) a very nice sound system and a great selection of music (about 12K without repeats). I have never gotten complaints from others about not having what they want to sing, or that such-and-such has over 100K songs. I have gotten lots of compliments from people who have attended my shows (as few and far apart as they may be), that they loved how clear everything sounded, and they had a great time. Yet, I am in the same boat as you... I can't seem to get people to attend my show/s either. I have a e-mail list of over 100 names, and if 3 of them show up when I advertise a show, I'm elated.

Question about your opening statement --- You said that several KJs tried to host a show at this place, and it failed. What were they doing in comparison to this KJ? You described a couple of interesting things that this KJ did with his show, such as running some Trivia and Bar Games (to get everyone involved), and the animated splash screens he uses.

Now, one thing I will say, if there was that much Dead Air time at the show (as you described), I definitely would not be going back to that show again.

I always have filler music going, so there is never dead air. Then I will usually play some dance crap if I have people that like to dance.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

What, they can't dance to karaoke? We have people dancing quite a bit of the time.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

We have people who like to dance to regular music, too. Our show is mixed. Although, I am in a smaller market, so we don't have 50 singers a night. I busy karaoke night is 25 singers around here. So my buddy and I play a lot of filler music.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

We get that as well, most of the singers tend to sing danceable songs on most nights.

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I should clarify... What I meant to say was, if I had to wait 3-4 minutes for the KJ to cue up each singer he calls up to the stage, and then (possibly) take longer as he gets distracted by others, I would not be returning to that show ever again. 3-4 minutes between every single singer is a long time to have to wait. Now, it's a different story if you're playing filler music with the specific intent of getting people up to dance, but this does not sound like the case.

Any show that we go to that is billed as karaoke and they then have a whole song as "filler" between just about every singer because they are trying to find the next song for the next singer then that is a show that should be billed as a KJ/DJ show and it will be a show that we do not go back to.
The show we went to Saturday had that happening along with the KJ/DJ being on the phone OUTSIDE and missing when the songs ended so there was also dead air while he rushed back inside to try to cue the next song. This one actually had a book printed and in it was just about every SC or CB out there near as I could see from the size of the thing. He did have some other manu's but not many. He also told me that he does not keep a history going on people and just lists everyone as unknown in the program. Not sure what he was using as he was not very forthcoming with too much info.

See, it depends. For my buddy and I, some nights are all karaoke, if there is a big crowd. Other night are quite slow, like if there is a popular band in town. Those nights there is a lot of music played. Like I said, this area is strange. In the winter we always have more singers, because of the snow birds, but summertime is very hit or miss.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Totally agree. If it's billed 'karaoke' that's what I will expect. If it's billed karaoke/dj, then I will expect some regular dj music to be played. But don't dupe me into coming out to spend money in the club that is advertising karaoke, then play alot of dj music. Just simply add DJ to the ad so I know what to actually expect from the show.

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I'll be doing a KJ/DJ show tomorrow night at a venue for the first time.

I've rarely have someone tell me that so and so has "every" song. Maybe when I first began with about 2200 songs. I do remember one time having the conversation and I asked if he planned on singing 100,000 song that night. I also told him about the pirate issue. I also told him that he should try to sing more songs and then he wouldn't have to worry about if they had that one song that most don't seem to have.


I'll give up that one customer every time, I want the ones that are there for fun. And if I had to choose personality or huge song library, I'll take the personality every time both as being a host or me being the singer.

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